Brussels, 31/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - A month after the tsunami which devastated Asia, the EU foreign ministers, meeting on Monday, took stock of what steps could be taken to improve the EU's response to similar disasters in future. The action plan they adopted enshrines in writing the options mapped out by the extraordinary Council of 7 January, and takes account of the Commission's proposals, which were presented by Manuel Barroso.
This action plan, which is designed to encompass all initiatives to be taken by the EU and its Member States, was approved in light of the first lessons to be drawn from the disaster, the Council stressed in its conclusions, and plans to return to this dossier with the Development ministers on 25 and 26 April.
The main aim of the action plan is to improve the coordination of available means to face up to the consequences of such incidents, today and in the future. It takes stock of short-term actions in regions hit, especially on the mobilisation of budgetary and financial means (1.5 billion EUR) and boosting action on the ground (humanitarian aid and military resources), and medium-term reconstruction efforts (needs in infrastructure, fisheries and tourism, accompanying measures for health, commercial support measures, EU/Asia political dialogue). The plan also outlines possible measures to deal with similar disasters inside or outside the EU. Boosting the EU's reaction capacity was dealt with on several fronts: improving existing instruments (analysis and assessment of needs, coordination of Member States' contributions, collective EU response for operations carried out by another organisation, coordination and management of EU stand-alone operations, scenarios depending on the situation, interoperability of resources, including civil-military interoperability, etc); possible creation of new structures (such as a civil protection agency- an idea which has met with a lukewarm reception from the UK and the Netherlands); development of an EU rapid response capability: the Council proposes looking into its scope, coordination, or pooling of means by the Member States, relation with the community civil protection mechanism and Echo, and coordination structures to be put into place in the afflicted regions. The action plan also provides for the Council to think about the role to be played by various projects such as the creation of a voluntary European humanitarian aid corps, and calls on the Commission to make proposals to boost prevention and early-warning measures for the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
The Commission took a fourth decision on Monday on aid for the victims of the tsunami: 80 million EUR (bringing the total to 130 million) going to around five million people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Maldives and India. It will be divided as follows: 56.5 million for short-term aid and rehabilitation, 15 for coordination and distribution, 2 for the assessment and reinforcement of early-warning and disaster prevention systems. The Commissioner for humanitarian aid, Louis Michel, noted: “The Union was the first donor to take a firm financial commitment, which it did on the very day of the disaster, and it will continue to provide help once the television cameras leave”.